The judge is eager to hasten the curtain call: if the case is not resolved in the five days before Christmas, when it is listed for hearing, he has threatened to haul the parties back into court from December 28 and into January.

A speedy resolution would quell the media storm engulfing all the players in this saga, including the former silk who suggests its force has transformed this “little case".

“If what I read in the newspapers is correct, there’s been a lot of communication between Mr McInnes and Ms Fraser-Kirk by text messages and the like," Justice Flick said.

Only weeks ago, he told the courtroom he had not kept up with the media coverage.

The Sydney-born and raised, University of Sydney and Cambridge alumnus – who turns 59 on Tuesday – must now determine a case turning in part on participants’ media representations and wrangling.

Mr McInnes’ barrister, Anthony Meagher, SC, told the court this week that whether Ms Fraser-Kirk hired a public relations firm to minimise the glare of the press or, as he will claim, to “whip up" media attention, will be in issue.

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The David Jones board has defended her claim of punitive – or aggravated damages – on the basis that she has “actively sought and instigated media attention".

Justice Flick’s relationship with reporters in his newly renovated courtroom in a 1970s tower in Sydney falls somewhere between the two extremes. The former barrister spent much of his career appealing to judges rather than juries, focusing on administrative law cases, which explored the limits of government power.

Before joining the court in September 2007, one of the last appointments by Howard-era attorney-general Philip Ruddock, he spent about a quarter of a century at the bar, including 14 years as a senior counsel.

He has written publications on High Court and Federal Court practice, administrative law, natural justice and civil liberties.

But he does not speak legalese. In an expression that has dominated headlines this week, Justice Flick cautioned against the case devolving into a “witch-hunt". He said David Jones’ 44 stores across the country should not be “ransacked" to find records of complaints by all staff about any case of bullying and harassment.

An attempt by Ms Fraser-Kirk’s legal team to get extensive documents from the opposition was described as falling into the “good try category".

Ms Fraser-Kirk’s team sought access to documents showing discussions between the David Jones board and outsiders about press reporting on Mr McInnes and the case. Justice Flick asked incredulously if they wanted pub musings jotted on “a beer coaster", or chats with their mothers about articles in “The Gunnedah Times". The public gallery erupted with laughter.

Justice Flick has read newspaper articles on the protagonists and, in the case of reports about text messages, has used them to suggest Ms Fraser-Kirk should be entitled to access accounts showing phone communications between her and McInnes, and between the former David Jones CEO and other unnamed women in her claim.

But he does not necessarily encourage such resourcefulness in the parties’ advisers. An attempt by Ms Fraser-Kirk’s barrister to shore up her request for documents relating to former Westpac HR boss Ilana Atlas – who allegedly overhauled the DJs complaints process in the wake of the scandal – with a press report was met with little enthusiasm.

He has looked unfavourably on attempts to enlarge the dispute or delay its hearing. He’s also displayed a concern to narrow the issues in the case to make it end more quickly.

“I’m just trying to get this case running as quickly as we can," he said on Wednesday, following a string of tense exchanges with Ms Fraser-Kirk’s barrister over disputed categories of documents sought to bolster her claim.